- Disability Lens Digest
- Posts
- When Justice Comes Too Late: Japan’s Reckoning with Forced Sterilization
When Justice Comes Too Late: Japan’s Reckoning with Forced Sterilization
ruvim senina
May 29, 2025
In a landmark decision, Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s now-defunct Eugenic Protection Law, which permitted the forced sterilization of people with disabilities, was unconstitutional. The law was in effect from 1948 until 1996—shockingly recent—and affected over 16,500 individuals. Many were sterilized without consent; some were children, others were pressured by medical authorities or family members, often under the belief that they were unfit to reproduce.
The court’s decision comes after years of legal battles by survivors who sought justice and recognition for what was done to them. Now, the government is offering compensation of approximately 15 million yen (about $96,700 USD) to each living victim. It’s a response that acknowledges legal and moral wrongdoing—but it also raises deep, uncomfortable questions.
What does justice look like after decades of silence and harm? Can a financial payout repair the loss of bodily autonomy, the trauma of being told your life—and your potential children’s lives—are unworthy? Can it undo a policy rooted in ableism and eugenics that remained law into the modern age?
For many survivors, the ruling is meaningful not just for the money but because it validates their pain. For decades, they carried their stories in silence, often marginalized or disbelieved. This decision places their truth at the center of the national narrative. It says clearly: this was wrong.
And yet, money cannot restore what was taken. Not identity. Not family. Not the years of feeling erased or defective under the weight of state-sanctioned discrimination. The damage was not just physical—it was emotional, generational, and cultural.
Japan’s moment of reckoning should serve as a global reminder. Even in developed nations, disability rights are fragile. Discrimination may look different across time and culture, but it often stems from the same root: the idea that disabled lives are lesser.
Sources:
• AP News (https://apnews.com/article/japan-sterilization-eugenics-court-ruling-compensation-e6db8f91a17341022282b6689cc6018c) • The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/03/court-orders-japanese-government-to-pay-damages-over-forced-sterilisations) • Mainichi Japan (https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250117/p2g/00m/0na/002000c)
My Thoughts
I’m so grateful that I live in the United States, where disability laws have progressed to the point where this kind of atrocity isn’t legal today. But I am deeply saddened to hear that it happened in Japan, and so recently. This isn’t a far-off story—it’s a mirror that reminds me how important it is to protect and uplift the rights of people with disabilities everywhere.